What the Bible Says about Cain’s Wife

Cain left and went to live in the land of Nod: What the Bible Says about Cain’s Wife

By Betty Miller

Pastors Bud & Betty Miller on Cain’s Wife

Who Was Cain’s Wife, Where Did She Come From

This question is often sometimes thought to be among the “hard questions” pertaining to the Bible. Because the Bible does not always address certain questions or issues in black and white, many fault the Bible as being incomplete, inconsequential, or full of mistakes. However, the Bible almost always answers itself somewhere within its pages. The answer to this question really is quite simple, and the obvious answer can be inferred from the text of the Bible in Genesis, Chapters 4-5.

First, let’s lay some groundwork. In those days of human history, humans lived to be very old. Most lived between 500 and 1000 years old. Adam lived 930 years and Eve probably lived about the same amount of time. Because they lived as long as they did, they had many other children aside from Cain, Abel and Seth. After all, God had commanded them to “be fruitful and increase in number…” (Genesis 1:28). The Bible even tells us plainly in Genesis 5:4: “(Adam) had other sons and daughters.” These other children would have settled in various parts of that region. As there was no one else for them to marry, they had to marry each other to propagate the human race. This intermarriage would have been permissible by God back then since there were no other people on earth.

Now back to the original question: Who was Cain’s wife? In Genesis 4:14, after Cain murders Abel, he says to God “whoever finds me will kill me.” Obviously, by that time, there were already many other people living on the earth. After he murdered Abel, Cain left and went to live in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Genesis 4:16). It appears that it was there that he married a wife – who may have been either a sister or another relative.

And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch. And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech. Genesis 4:16-18

There is an unsubstantiated theory that God may have “planted” other people on the earth during this time, for the purpose of populating the earth. Because the Bible makes it clear that we are all descended from Adam and Eve, and are the “seed of Adam” this theory cannot be true. The early books in the Old Testament make a point to trace lineages of whole peoples and races from certain people who were of Adam’s bloodline. Furthermore, the Bible is clear that we are all born with Adam’s sinful nature that Christ died to redeem us from.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:… For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:12,17

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. I Corinthians 15:21-22